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Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Plot twists and turns, and surprises galore
Review: If your taste in movies is action/fantasy/adventure/horror, this film is not for you. If you appreciate a movie whose complex twists and plot turns and counter-turns puzzle you and make you think, "Eyes Wide Shut" is a masterpiece. Stanley Kubrick was never an easy director to understand and his last movie is a powerful, intriguing enigma. I'm not a fan of either Tom Cruise or Nicole Kidman, but I thought they were both excellent in this film. Cruise plays a doctor with a comfortable lifestyle (beautiful wife, cute daughter, plush digs on Central Park West), who is devastated by his wife's mock confession of a fantasized infidelity, which sends him out into a night journey in which fantasy and reality become so intertwined that we can't see where one stops and the other starts. How much do we really see? Do we sometimes go deliberately blind in order not to see? Kubrick explores all this and more in this exquisite film, and when the couple wake up to the cold light of day, they are left to realize that fantasy, however distasteful, needn't destroy everything that reality has built up. A lot of people hate this movie simply because they can't understand it, and it moves at the pace of an arthritic snail; but as previously stated, this is not an action film; you need to slow down and think and reflect as you watch it. If you have sufficient maturity for this, then this movie is indeed for you.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Dream or Reality?
Review: This is the first movie that I've watched of Stanley Kubrick. Ironically and yet incidentally, it was his last!
The plot of the movie was not very comprehensible to me. Among the various elements that it comprises of were the sexual desires, fear of one's partner's infidelity and hypocrisy. The point that the director has wished to convey is not very clear. Or may be that there was no point that he wanted to convey and just wanted to capture a still-shot of an ever changing & unending drama? But then, the plot did have an end that movies usually have - the main characters - a husband and wife decide to allow themselves to continue to live together.
Though the plot is complex, there are certain definite positive elements in the movie worth praising. The pace of the movie suits the complexity of the plot and adds depth to it. The background music is haunting and enraptures the audience. The performance by the actors is, particularly, amazing & applaudable. Nicole kidman & Tom Cruise have performed impressively well, especially in the bedroom scene where they have a fight.
Overall, it is a sort of movie after watching which you do not feel like having wasted time even though you might have watched it to just pass time!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The End
Review: Kubrick's last film sums up the bulk of his oeuvre. The pace varies from slow to dead slow. The characters are completely vapid nonentities: shallow beyond belief, and just uniquely uninteresting people. The dialogue is banal in the extreme, repetitious, meaningless and only semi-articulate. There is an obsessive attention to design, irrelevant details and photographic technology, handled with very little imagination or creativity. The viewer sits there, hypnotised, mouth agape, wondering if anything is ever going to happen, or if there is anything s/he can identify with or feel engaged by. The plot, whether it is a well-heeled middle-class dream fantasy or whether it isn't, is stupefyingly tedious and unbelievable. The culmination is bleak and empty, a grim and humourless vision of life's utter pointlessness; the joyless shell of a nuclear family during the ha-ha happy holidays season who cannot think of a single meaningful thing to do. I had another look at A Clockwork Orange, and it was very similar. Why did this exercise in prolonged tedium have such an impact when I first saw it all those years ago? These films just don't stand up. They don't entertain, they don't uplift, they add up to nothing but a feeling of numbness and desolation.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Brilliantly Misunderstood
Review: When EYES WIDE SHUT was released in 1999, it thus was crafted into one of the late and legendary Stanley Kubrick's most misunderstood masterpieces. This story of human fidelity tested by sexual longings is as universal as it is a jounrey into psychological self-discovery. For those who did not understand what the film was about were either lazy or naive: America must learn to THINK rather than observe all the time when watching films. EYES WIDE SHUT proves this.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: You Have Got to be Joking!
Review: What are all of these people who give this movie great ratings talking about?

Before I start I would like you to know that I am not your typical movie-goer. I enjoy a wide range of films, but tend to enjoy movies that stir the imagination and the soul.

I have watched this film twice and found myself uneasy (as others have written about this film), but not from the "tension" created by a genius at work, but rather from wondering why I am putting myself through this laborious film. Actually the second time I watched the film, I was simply unable to get myself through it all. I gave it a second shot because I thought that maybe I missed something the first round.

While I believe the acting was wonderful, the dialogue, and story line was so languid in its delivery that it is literally painful to sit through.

This movie is supposed to be about the darker side of ourselves and how this aspect of our split psyches are repressed and hidden, but are ever lurking under the surface. The main characaters, played by Tom Cruise and nicole kidman, find themselves performing a dance of sorts, exposing candidly the desires that we also share, but are unwilling or afraid to give into. The Tom Cruise character finds himself meandering through the underbelly of the city, walking into a world that he knows very little about and is very very dangerous. There are moments of sexually charged scenes they are tasteful and well done, however, the long winded scenes simply outweigh any of the movies noteworthy elements.

Ultimately we can see a resolution by the characters as they understand that the more dangerous elements that reside within the human dialectic can be expressed without destroying those who mean the most to us, as well as ourselves.

This subject is absolutely compelling in every sense of the word, unfortunately Kubriks attempt to portray these aspects of humanity falls way short.

The pretentious may feel compelled to heap many accolades upon this unworthy slop, but I would rather call it for what it is; A bitter dissapointment.

If you do buy this or rent it,just to see how awful it truly is, take out a second movie so you can enjoy the rest of the evening.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A sad movie that brings you down
Review: This movie is not only bad, it destroys the positive image of love, which is much worse. The pace is bad, the plot is not nice, the colors are strange, the title is crazy. I regret having watched it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not THAT bad.
Review: Yes, it's slow. Certainly longer than I expected - sort of a 2001 of the human sexual condition. But overall I enjoyed the movie - the Kubrick style is always fascinating to me. And the story is very intriguing to me. I thought maybe Cruise's character was acting a little naive for a bit too long, though. But the part about the secret society meeting - I think that kind of stuff (and worse) really goes on (and always has) in our upper echelons of society. I wonder if any women like this movie?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Words Can't Explain
Review: Words can't explain how brilliant this movie is. Ok, perhaps some scenes did drag a little to long, but if you have the time then they aren't completey pointless. I think the lengrthy scenes slowly lull you into Kubrick's world and vision. The acting was by far some of the best acting both by Kidman and Cruise. This is a great story about jealousy, lust and the way people can make a few comments build up and blow them out of proportion by dwelling on them long enough. RIP Kubrick and thank you for leaving us with nothing less than stellar.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An ultimately uplifting film
Review: In the end, Kubrick's last film displays the most positive view of the human condition ever seen in one of his films. This is in sharp contrast to most of his other work, where Kubrick consistently portrayed the less attractive aspects of human nature. Eyes Wide Shut, on the other hand, is exhilarating in its final affirmation of the value of trust and love. Listen to Alice's closing monologue, which basically sums up what this viewer suspects what Kubrick was trying to say about living a meaningfully adult life.

Visually, the film is stunning, and SO characteristiclly Kubrick; fans will delight in the precise composition of scenes, the tracking shots, the use of saturated primary colors, the use of light and shadow.

My only quibble with this DVD edition is that it is presented in a full-screen format. The statement on the package suggests that the director intended the film to be presented in what is described as "the original aspect ratio of the film negative," or something very close, whatever that means - but I have a tough time swallowing that when the film was presented in wide-screen in theaters. Knowing Kubrick was meticulous about the elements presented in every single frame, I can't help but think we're missing something in this edition. But this shouldn't deter you from contemplating this profoundly moving film.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It should have been rated X
Review: I had the unfortunate displeasure of seeing this horrible movie thanks to the recommendation by the video store clerk. Boy did I learn my lesson.

All I can say is "Thank goodness this Kubrick jerk isn't around to make anymore movies."

That said, I tried to think of something positive to say about this movie. There is nothing... The story? Woman tells husband of her thoguhts of being with another man. Man finds house with orgy going on. Man hangs around and watches til kicked out. That's it. Oh, and nothing but naked females, because, obviously when people have sex, only the women are naked. There is nothing but full frontal female nudity in this movie. It's obvious exploitation. To make it even better, we get shots of several fully naked women with masks on. Oh yes, to all men out there who thought this movie was great, that isn't exploitation at all. Go explain THAT one to your mom.

How this movie got by on an R rating, I'll never know. It should have received an X rating, but at the very least, NC-17. It's sad that children of all ages can freely rent this movie.


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